Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Thinking about going to T-Mobile from Verizon…
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August 15, 2014 at 1:56 am #612358
PibalParticipantFamily of four, one daughter in Ellensburg. Verizon contracts are done and it looks like we can save some serious coin with a swap to T-Mobile. With the improvements T-Mobile has made over the last year or two, there don’t appear to be any show stoppers. Only question I have is quality of network and availability throughout eastern Washington. I do travel intermittently to the far side…
Any first hand experience out there?
August 15, 2014 at 2:16 am #812158
clark5080ParticipantAugust 15, 2014 at 5:24 am #812159
kgdlgParticipantI did this about 6 months ago and on an almost daily basis I say that it was one of the worst decisions ever! In almost ten years on Verizon I had about 5 dropped calls. I have almost one a day now on T-mobile. And I mean in Seattle in really populated areas. (It isn’t my phone, I have a brand new very high quality phone).
And outside of Seattle, forget about it, the service is atrocious. I knew I would have to sacrifice the coverage Verizon has everywhere, but I had no idea that once I left the City, I would basically have barely one bar anywhere. Terrible.
I now know why Verizon can charge what they do for their service. As soon as I pay off my Phone I am going back. Please don’t make the same mistake I made!
August 15, 2014 at 5:53 am #812160
clark5080Participantnever had a dropped call
August 15, 2014 at 1:57 pm #812161
pugpersonMemberHad T-mobile and couldn’t wait to change. Too many areas with no reception. We have Verizon now and never have a problem.
August 15, 2014 at 3:00 pm #812162
BonnieParticipantI have T-Mobile and HATE it! I can’t tell you how many places I don’t have service. There are so many places in WS that I can’t get service. Then when I’ve gone out of town (just over on the Penninsula) all my companions had Verizon and AT&T and I was the only one with TMobile. They had service but me? Of course not. I had TMobile. I rarely have dropped calls because I don’t usually talk on the phone much (because maybe I don’t have service!).
August 15, 2014 at 3:04 pm #812163
bigmarkMemberI’ve been with T-Mobile for over 10 years, and never had any problems with it. It’s the only provider I’ve had in Seattle. Maybe if I had switched from a “better” carrier I would see issues with T-Mobile, but I’ve been perfectly happy with the service (and the price!).
August 15, 2014 at 3:10 pm #812164
dmkParticipantI have had T-Mobile for more years than I can remember and have been happy with the service. The family plan is affordable but the only thing I am not sure about is that since they no longer have contracts you pay full price for your phone about $20 per month but if you cancel the balance is due. I think I would rather have a contract and get a discount on the phone.
August 15, 2014 at 3:42 pm #812165
DaveBParticipantRoot Metrics is an independent company that measures and compares coverage for all carriers.
I work for one of the carriers you didn’t mention, so have never experienced any other network. However, Root’s maps seem very accurate compared to my experience.
August 15, 2014 at 4:32 pm #812166
B-squaredParticipantAlso had T-mobile for years and it’s very spotty in West Seattle (bad near Endolyne Joe’s and near Allstar fitness). I moved to Verizon and now it’s good at home but crappy at work:-(
August 15, 2014 at 4:44 pm #812167
MrsLMemberI have tmobile and it’s been fine. There are instances where I’ll inexplicable not have cell service in town, but that’s pretty rare. Data download/upload is pretty fast and consistent. For the price and quality of services, I’m happy with tmobile. Before tmobile, I used virgin mobile and that had less coverage than tmobile.
August 15, 2014 at 5:00 pm #812168
trickycooljParticipantIf your daughter is in Ellensburg, I assume she’s at Central? Have her ask her peers how the service is around town. Not all services are equal over there. Verizon really is king in rural communities. My mom hastly rage quit Cingular/ATT when I was in college and went to T-Mobile. Turned out their service was horrid around UW and didn’t work inside a single building. I was completely reliant on a land line telephone when indoors which was frustrating for both myself and my mom who had to try to reach me on multiple numbers, the landline being long distance for her. A year later (thankfully they had 12-mo contracts back then) we went back to Cingular after they completely transitioned their merger with ATT. Haven’t quit since!
August 15, 2014 at 5:19 pm #812169
WSBKeymasterAlso weighing in: We used T-Mobile for the first couple years with the official WSB hotline. Had dropout trouble in north West Seattle. But – that’s been a few years. We converted to Verizon and I have one on AT&T – no problems with that or the Verizon line. Another vote for Verizon comes via our personal wi-fi (aka Mi-Fi) device – we had one with Sprint for a while, then changed to Verizon, and the latter performs much better, all over West Seattle (only place it ever faltered was in the church basement where the Admiral Neighborhood Association used to meet – I suspect it was fallout-shelter-quality walls).
Good luck! – TR
August 15, 2014 at 9:08 pm #812170
Seattle TrashMemberT-Mobile doesn’t have the best coverage in NCW, parts of WS and downtown. However, I am on Verizon (paid for by work), and when I start paying my own bill again, I’ll switch back to T-Mobile to save money, even with those coverage issues. I don’t need to be on my phone as much as I am anyhow!
August 17, 2014 at 4:25 pm #812171
PibalParticipantNot a huge ground swell one way or the other and the issues raised are exactly the ones we have been weighing. Our current thinking is we just may have to dive in to see the results. Hopefully the service received and the cost savings will be a match. Then again, if not, at least there’s no contract to tie our hands.
Thank you all for your feedback. We’ll report back with what we decided and our experience…
August 19, 2014 at 5:50 am #812172
mike0323ParticipantI haven’t had any problems or dropped calls with T-Mobile in West Seattle. For the rural areas yes you do give up some coverage to save money. My plan has limited roaming so when I’m somewhere rural I can use AT&T’s network. This setup has worked pretty well for me. My wife has Sprint w/ roaming on Verizon’s network. Her coverage is probably better however we haven’t seen it. I’ve been surprised to find that there are places where I have service and she doesn’t. I know its not Ellensburg, but TMobile does not have good coverage near Lake Wenatchee I do have to use roaming there and so I have to be careful not to max out my allotment of data.
August 19, 2014 at 1:35 pm #812173
mtnfreakParticipantFWIW, I work extensively in rural areas on both sides of the Cascades from I-90 North (including Ellensberg) and witness constant coverage problems with Spring, T-Mobile, and AT&T with my clients, while I have more and more consistent coverage with Verizon. Also, having our immediate and extended families also using Verizon and/or iPhones has helped tremendously too.
November 18, 2014 at 6:18 pm #818840
PibalParticipantSaw a post about Harbor Avenue cell phone coverage and it reminded me to provide a follow-up…
We did indeed make the switch from Verizon to T-Mobile in late August and here’s a report on our experience thus far:
– Even with paying for four brand new iPhones on an installment plan, the monthly bill is $15 less per month than before.
– Once the phones are paid off in 20 months, we’ll be saving $140.00 per month.
– The data plan sharing has worked out well. My wife and I never exceed our quota. My two daughters are heavy data users and once they reach their monthly LTE allocation, their data speed is greatly reduced. They report that it is noticeably slower but their is no charge for the overage. I told them they could pay for the extra data if they wanted it from their pocket. They’ve elected to live with the slower speeds rather than spend the money. (I like this feature immensely and a nice by-product is that it has forced some thoughtful decision-making on their part.)
– We had one phone still under contract at Verizon and the contract termination fee was $200. T-mobile reimbursed that $200 in about 6 weeks from paperwork submission.
– Coverage in Seattle, Tacoma, and Ellensburg has been good. There have been a very few dropped calls and, when I travel, I can see that the coverage areas are not as extensive as Verizon’s. Nonetheless, while that was my most significant concern before making the jump, it realistically has not been an issue more than a very intermittent inconvenience.
– All of us notice a slight difference in the tonal quality of phone conversations. Not a problem, just a difference.
– T-Mobile includes wi-fi calling capability and that’s worked well too.
– Last month T-Mobile offered free new wireless routers to improve network wireless coverage throughout the home. It is supposed to offer better penetrating ability. I ordered one and it just arrived – haven’t hooked it up yet – but hey it’s a brand new free router.
All in all, we are very pleased we made the switch. New phones, saving money, and the savings will really kick in a little further down the road.
Now if there was something similar to compete with Comcast home phone/cable//internet service (CenturyLink isn’t it), we’d really be on to something…
November 18, 2014 at 8:22 pm #818841
pattileaParticipantI have T-Mobile and hate it. Once you leave the I-5 corridor it very spotty.
November 21, 2014 at 3:24 am #818842
JasperbluParticipantI was with AT&T/Cingular/LA Cellular for 10+ years. Had it the first three years we lived in West Seattle (2008-2011) and it was spotty in some areas, but not terribly so. *Except* at my house (Fauntlee Hills), where it worked almost never in the back of the house (including my bedroom), so if I wanted to make a call, I had to go into the kitchen or sit on the front porch.
Then I went to work for a SF based company with an office in Pioneer Square. I was able to get on their company plan with Verizon, which worked better in West Seattle, which was great. But their plans were SUPER expensive, customer service sucked, and no simultaneous data/voice for iPhone users (still the case, unless you have an iPhone 6 or 6+).
Moved to Vashon this past August. Verizon service was fair over much of the island, but at my house I literally had to be outside to make any calls. Inside the house, no signal. Nothing.
So, I switched to T-Mobile about 3 weeks ago. Great deal. They bought out the rest of my Verizon contract. I was able to put a new SIM card in my unlocked iPhone 5s, and ported my number with no issues. Now I get a signal IN my house, but pretty much nowhere else on the island. Spotty to no service inside buildings. And I hate to tell ya, but when I’m in Seattle, West Seattle, Tukwila, etc., I get almost no signal there either.
Now I know why T-Mobile is so cheap. You’ll get no phone signal. Not so bad if you never make calls (and I rarely do), but not good at all if you don’t have a land line (I haven’t had one in almost a decade) and are a single mama who would prefer to you know, have a phone that actually WORKS in emergencies.
I did order the iPhone 6, which is still on backorder. I’m hoping the signal situation will improve with the new device, but if if it doesn’t? I’m going back to ATT. End of story.
Good luck!
P.S. T-Mobile’s customer service is the BEST I’ve ever had with a mobile carrier. And I’ve had them all at one point or another, including a very brief stint with Sprint (which was the worst of all of them by far — no signal, terrible customer service). If you use a smart phone in general, or an iPhone in particular, I think you’ll probably be happiest at ATT or Verizon.
November 21, 2014 at 5:55 am #818843
shed22ParticipantT-mobile customer for the last 13 years. Worst coverage imaginable. Cheap. Awful. But cheap. And awful. Never expect a call to keep connected while driving. Expect disruptions and drops. Almost every call. Unreliable. You get what you pay for. No, you get less.
November 21, 2014 at 6:52 pm #818844
maplesyrupParticipantRecently switched to T-Mobile for work-related reasons. Sprint’s coverage was way better and the prices are about the same if you only need domestic coverage.
November 21, 2014 at 9:49 pm #818845
JoBParticipanti would much rather pay for verizon than not have coverage when i need it
November 22, 2014 at 1:33 am #818846
kgdlgParticipantSwitched to T-mobile from Verizon because of cost about a year ago and HATE it every day. There are particular spots all over W Seattle where calls drop for no reason. In ten years with Verizon I can think of maybe one or two dropped calls. Also, I don’t travel much but when I do it is usually for family, so I need my phone. Service outside of Seattle is atrocious, meaning you will never know if you will have it when you leave even a certain neighborhood in a City – my recent experience in MN and Boston. Terrible. I would really advise against it. Once my phone is paid off I am back to Verizon.
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